Kita ze Inbou! - キタぜ陰謀!

[ Page 16: Early Results and the Real Deal ]

This was a very powerful chapter, especially the ending where Saiko dumps the old pages into the sea. I’m aware that questionnaires are vital to manga creations, but I had no idea it was this striking, though it does make a whole lot of sense. You can’t get anywhere further without proper feedback first.

Being in 3rd place sounds good enough for anyone, but being the stubborn teenagers they are, they won’t settle for anything lower than Eiji. Eiji’s pretty lucky to be the guy he is; he doesn’t have to worry about anything. I’m sure he won’t really care if he’s #1 or not, it’s just about his strong devotion to manga that really matters to him. With Ashirogi Muto determined to beat Eiji, it looks like they have to change their strategy and bend the rules to better themselves regardless of Hattori’s advice.

So, the guys came in third in the end. Bummer. Not to mention all that hard work they put into making a serialized version of their manga was all for nothing. Well, technically not “all for nothing” since I”m sure they learned something from it all that will show in their next project. Still, I’m not sure about their decision on going mainstream. If you think about it, Death Note wasn’t exactly what people would call mainstream but yet it did marvelously from what I can tell (say what you will about the ending). Bakuman is shaping up to be in the same vein as Death Note as well. Then again, it’s interesting to see that the characters are being guided in this direction and I await to see what the results of this will bring for them.